IMPACT OF FERTILIZATION HISTORY AND SEMEN PARAMETERS ON ICSI OUTCOME

Purpose: The objectives of this study were (Ij to investigate intracyt oplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) outcome according to its indications, i.e., a history of failed or poor fertilization and unsuitable sperm p arameters for conventional NF; and (2) to examine the impact of a fema le's age, sperm concentration, motility, morphology, presence of antis perm antibodies, and hemizona assay (HZA) results on overall outcome, Methods: Two hundred seventy-nine ICSI cycles performed in 207 couples were retrospectively evaluated. Results: Clinical pregnancy and deliv ery rates were 36.8 and 29.8% for patients with prior failed fertiliza tion, 23.2 and 17.8% for patients who had prior poor fertilization, an d 28.6 and 21.3% for patients with unsuitable sperm parameters, The di fferences among all groups were found to be insignificant, There was a significant, negative correlation between a female's age and pregnanc y results. No difference was found in the three basic sperm parameters between those patients who produced and those who did nor produce a p regnancy, but the fertilization rare was significantly higher in patie nts with more adequate sperm parameters, Although there was a trend to ward a better fertilization rate in patients with a hemizona index (HZ I) greater than 30 (indicative of a superior sperm-zona pellucida bind ing capacity) than in those with a HZI less than 30, the difference wa s not significant. There were no differences infertilization rate acco rding to the presence or absence of antisperm antibodies. Conclusions: Fertilization history in a conventional NF cycle has no effect on suc cess rates following ICSI, and there is no correlation among the basic sperm parameters, the presence of antisperm antibodies, and pregnancy rates.